Women in Accra Work Long Hours for Moderate Wages

Allan Hill and Gunther Fink of Harvard University; Ernest Aryeetey of the University of Ghana; and Kelly Blanchard of Ibis Reproductive Health, analyzed data on women and households to further explain the interaction between sexual activity, reproduction, and labor for productivity at the household level. The researchers collected data using a range of methods including surveys, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions and found that women work long hours and for moderate wages throughout their lives, an intense work pattern which is uninterrupted by pregnancy and child care. The majority of mothers, they discovered, worked for themselves in the informal sector where their young children could accompany them. Dr. Allan Hill speaks in-depth on these findings and others with Trisha Moslin, Program Adminstrator at PRB.